marty makary, a surgeon at johns hopkins hospitals in baltimore. here is his book. we have about a half-hour left on the "washington journal" this morning. coming up, our weekly america by the numbers segment. we will be looking at workplace safety issues. we will be right back. >> the first thing in our article here is getting medicare costs under control as the number-one priority. and it is the most untouchable thing. but that is going to cause more trouble than any other problem we got physically in the u.s. getting medicare costs under control is the number-one thing. >> usain also, surcharge smokers, and the obese for their medicare coverage. >> right. >> where did that idea come from? >> it came from oz. on the person that put it in the memo, but i did not have to fight hard for it. i ran something in the "washington post" where instead of calling people morbidly obese i called them mega-fatties and i was reduced by the "washington post" for being insensitive. and i guess i probably am. this is something that everybody knows to be true and someone has to pay